Waltham High girls lacrosse team sticks in gear

Wednesday

CAMBRIDGE – The Waltham High girls lacrosse team did its best over the final 24 minutes of Tuesday’s game to take program history away from Cambridge Rindge & Latin.

In the end, however, it was the Falcons who made the necessary plays late to hold on for a 6-4 victory and the program’s first-ever triumph against the Hawks at Danehy Field.

“It feels really good,” Cambridge senior captain Ella Brown said. “This game was pretty close, for the most part, and it was so nerve-wracking. But it definitely feels good to beat a team that we could never even fathom beating in the past.

“It feels really good. I am a little emotional.”

While the Cambridge post-game huddle was bursting, the Hawks were thinking about some missed opportunities after they rallied from down 5-2 for a 5-4 game on Gena DeVito’s goal with 12:31 to play, but could never get the equalizer in the face of strong defense and goaltending of the Falcons.

“Credit to Cambridge,” Waltham coach Kristina MacLaughlan said. “(Coach) Shannon Manning is amazing coach and she has them playing really well this year.”

The Hawks fell to 0-2 on the season as they look to move forward with a veteran squad, but one that lost the all-time scorer in program history last year in Northwestern University freshman Taylor Pinzone.

“We have some strong talent back and (JV coach) Kellianne Woods has helped us with some new talent this year,” MacLaughlan said. “But they are still searching for when they should be patient and when they need to be aggressive and take the shot. When you have one person who is such a focal point for so long, you look for that person. Now they are going to figure out how to be a team where everyone has those responsibilities.”

Both teams were strong defensively on Tuesday with Cambridge coming up with a succession of deflections and blocked shots whenever the Hawks tried to find a cutter to the net, while Waltham was able to hold the Falcons scoreless for a 21-minute stretch of the second half behind the defense of Kendra Sorin and Gina Duffy, before Hanna Norris scored a huge insurance goal to make it 6-4 with 3:42 left in the game.

Cambridge then won the draw and Manning called timeout to set up the stall.

Waltham was able to come up with one steal from Sheridan Blaha with 2:19 to play, but the Hawks were called for offsides. They got the ball back in the final 30 seconds, but the Falcons prevented a shot to make it a one-goal game.

Breah LaForest scored Waltham’s first goal before the Falcons went up 3-1 midway through the first half. Emma Doherty scored from Devon DeMeo for a 3-2 game with 6:31 left in the half, but Cambridge came right back with Ella Simmons scoring for a 4-2 lead just 24 seconds later.

Norris scored for a three-goal game just 34 seconds into the second half when Waltham fought back with more ball control and some great defense. Doherty scored from Lauren Irving to make it 5-3 with 19:48 to play, and Devito got the Hawks within one seven minutes later, but Cambridge was able to hold strong through a two-minute Hawk power play and their attempts to double- and triple-team the Falcons on the stall late.

Waltham next hosts Wayland on Thursday before traveling to Bedford a week from Friday.